Translucent Plates

Matt Oz, a few quick questions after browsing your profile gallery. I should probably know this but don't, are you Matt of Matt and Dave's Porcelain? Are you still working with that special porcelain that is almost glass? Are you adding glass, more silica or?

Matt, Jim's post caught my interest. On your site you said your porcelain best fired in a mold. My question is, does the porcelain slump any into the press mold. If so it would help cut down on warping. One other thingshould it be fired to cone 6 bisk then refired to a lower 06 to 04 glaze firing like bone china?

Matt Oz, a few quick questions after browsing your profile gallery. I should probably know this but don't, are you Matt of Matt and Dave's Porcelain? Are you still working with that special porcelain that is almost glass? Are you adding glass, more silica or?

Jim

Thanks for the interest Jim,

No I'm a different Matt. I'm still working on the glassy porcelain (I say glassy because it doesn't need a glaze, unless I want it really smooth) almost done, it's close to what was used in the old days to make porcelain teeth, high in feldspar low in kaolin. It slumps to much for normal potting, but if your missing any teeth I could probably help you out.

One thing I found out doing this, there is a point when your trying to maximize translucency where you lose whiteness (because it's basically on the verge of melting into a clear glaze), I ended up having to add opacifier if I wanted a good white.

Matt, Jim's post caught my interest. On your site you said your porcelain best fired in a mold. My question is, does the porcelain slump any into the press mold. If so it would help cut down on warping. One other thingshould it be fired to cone 6 bisk then refired to a lower 06 to 04 glaze firing like bone china?

Thanks looking forward to testing on some jewelry

Wyndham

The glassy porcelain does slump into the mold so I decided to take advantage of that and do porcelain slumping. To make the plates I have been making flat discs setting them on top of the molds and firing to cone 6, the clay slumps into the mold and takes the shape of a plate with no warping like you mentioned. So the clay doesn't stick to the mold, I coat the bottom of the discs with a thin layer of normal porcelain and the mold with alumina, the bottom comes out looking like unglazed porcelain but luckily that's popular at the moment. This method seems to work best in shallow molds.

I could fire it like bone china but for now I'm trying to once fire or have a really low bisque, and just except that the bottom will look unglazed.

The recipes on my blog are pretty much a standard cone 6 porcelain, slumping isn't as much a problem with those. The recipes are sorely are out of date, I just threw them up there if someone wanted to mess around with them. The glassy porcelain recipe I haven't decided what to do with yet.

matt, would your recipe for cone 6 porcelain work for lithopanes? i would love to use a transparent body and use it in the mold i made of raku clay bisqued to 04. i am sending a picture of it and of an impression done in little loafers cone 6 stoneware.

can you suggest a way to create the impression and fire it? i assume that i will i have to fire it in the mold each time i want a copy. i can picture firing it to cone 6 as it is so it would finish shrinking. i am just afraid that once i use it to hold the porcelain i will lose the mold for any other use and i cannot make another one until the flowers bloom next spring.

matt, would your recipe for cone 6 porcelain work for lithopanes? i would love to use a transparent body and use it in the mold i made of raku clay bisqued to 04. i am sending a picture of it and of an impression done in little loafers cone 6 stoneware.

can you suggest a way to create the impression and fire it? i assume that i will i have to fire it in the mold each time i want a copy. i can picture firing it to cone 6 as it is so it would finish shrinking. i am just afraid that once i use it to hold the porcelain i will lose the mold for any other use and i cannot make another one until the flowers bloom next spring.

Why don't you just do it in a transparent porcelain like Frost or NZ6 instead of Little Loafers. You will not have to fire those in a mold and where the piece is thin, it will be very translucent.